U.S. federal grand juries have indicted 10 foreign nationals tied to crypto market makers for allegedly "wash trading" cryptocurrencies to inflate trading volume and prices.
Executives and employees of four crypto firms — Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian — were charged in three indictments for orchestrating pump-and-dump schemes that caused losses to investors in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to a statement released Monday by prosecutors at the Northern District of California.
Three defendants, including two chief executives, were arrested last year and extradited from Singapore to appear in a federal court in Oakland on Monday, per the statement.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendants acted as illicit market makers and conducted "wash trading" to create the false appearance that certain cryptocurrencies had active, organic trading volumes, luring unwitting investors into overvalued crypto.
The authorities have seized over $1 million in crypto to date on the above cases, the statement said. If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison and fines of $250,000 for each violation.
Several defendants have been brought to the U.S. to face charges. On Monday, Gleb Gora, a 24-year-old Russian national and CEO of Vortex, made his initial appearance in the Oakland court after being extradited from Singapore.
Last August, a federal jury indicted Gora and two other Vortex defendants, Sergei Ryzhkov and Michael Vogel, on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and artificially inflating crypto prices.
Contrarian executives and Indian nationals Manu Singh and Vasu Sharma also appeared at the court on Monday following their October extradition from Singapore. They were indicted on similar charges to those of Vortex employees. Other defendants include Contrarian's Kushagra Srivastava and Vasu Sharma, as well as Antier's Sabby Singh.
The Monday statement also noted that Gotbit employees Antoine Tsao, Ian Sofronov, and Nemanja Popov were indicted for their roles in the alleged fraud and wash trading scheme. Tsao and Popov have already pleaded guilty and were sentenced.
Previously, Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin was sentenced to eight months in prison in June 2025 after prosecutors said the market maker conducted wash trades that were worth millions of dollars.
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